1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus and a microscope system.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-101006, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
As a known microscope system in the related art, there is a confocal microscope system, including a confocal scanner and an objective lens, which radiates laser light input to the confocal scanner onto a specimen via the objective lens of the microscope and performs time-lapse observation thereof; additionally, while shifting the focal position of the objective lens in the optical axis direction in each time-lapse period, it detects fluorescence from the specimen and constructs a three-dimensional slice image (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-350005).
In this microscope system, if observation success or failure is determined on the basis of the image which is three-dimensionally constructed after the observation is completely finished, it takes a long time to ascertain whether observation was a success or failure. In such cases where it is not possible to determine the observation success or failure until the observation is completely finished, it is not possible to retry observation according to the observation status; therefore, when observing precious samples for which re-observation is not viable, unsuccessful observation results in a serious missed opportunity. Thus, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-350005, in order to avoid such missed opportunities, during acquisition of slice images of the specimen, a live image thereof is displayed, and a slice image of the specimen at a specified position in the optical axis direction is displayed during an idle period of each time-lapse observation.
Accordingly, by displaying an actually acquired live image during acquisition of the slice images and during idle periods, the microscope system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-350005 allows the operator present on site to recognize whether time-lapse observation is currently underway, whether observation has been completed, or whether some problem occurs during observation. However, the microscope system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-350005 has the following problems.
Specifically, when the time-lapse observation lasts for a long period of time, it is not realistic for the operator to constantly observe the display. Therefore, if an image considered to be normal is displayed when the operator checks the display, there is a drawback in that he or she cannot recognize a problem occurring temporarily during the observation prior to that point. In such a case, as a result, observation success or failure is first ascertained only after the long-term observation has completely finished; this is a problem particularly when observing precious samples because observation cannot be retried, resulting in a serious missed opportunity.
In addition, if a problem temporarily occurs at an initial stage of the time-lapse observation, the entire subsequent observation may be rendered meaningless because of that problem. Therefore, if such a problem is not noticed, the problem will first be recognized only after the long-term observation is completely finished, which is a drawback because it results in a significant waste of time and energy.
Furthermore, even when time-lapse observation is performed normally, it is desirable to be able to quickly ascertain the history of the slice image currently being displayed without waiting for the observation to be completely finished.